


Willow

by RhinoHill



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: #vss365, F/M, Love, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 07:37:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19080466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhinoHill/pseuds/RhinoHill
Summary: 100 days (S3E17)While Jack faces the possibility of a lifetime on Edora, he takes a daily walk. To a willow beside a stream whose drooping boughs remind him of the curve of Sam's neck when she bends over her work, whose rustling leaves make him recall the wind stirring her soft blonde hair.He may never see her again. She will definitely never know what he feels when her hair parts around the back of her neck. But once a day, he can caress the willow leaves and think of her.--oOo--





	Willow

_Jack_

 

The willow  boughs echo

The curve of your neck 

Long leaves flutter- 

Soft hair in a breeze. 

Every day I trace you  in its outline. 

 

I have no right to miss you.

I never told you how I felt.

 

But I hope tonight in dreams 

You'll feel wind in your hair 

And my lips on your cheek.

 

\--oOo--

 

_ Sam _

My eyes are grainy from lack of sleep.

My brain is grainy from despair.

No matter how I turn this, I don't know if I can get him back.

I don't know if I can face life without him.

 

Janet's forced me off the base, but I know I won't find rest.

I drive without attention and snap to when my car pulls up outside his house.

His empty house.

In the early morning light, it looks so peaceful.

But the plants on his porch need water.

At least there's  _something_ I can do.

The gallon bottle of emergency water from the boot takes care of the first few, and I stumble past the lawn where we hang out for team barbecues to the back to look for more.

Into a secret, sloping yard I've never seen before.

I follow the soft murmur of a stream, feeling as if I'm walking nearer him with every step.

At the water's edge, a weeping willow dips gnarled roots into the water.

Gracefully bowed branches nod in the breeze, trailing their tapered leaves in the stream. 

So much like his fingers, savouring the tiny swirling currents.

The trunk is cool and solid, rough but comforting. 

So much like him.

 

I wrap my arms around his willow-trunk and nestle my cheek against his bark.

"I miss you, Jack," I whisper to the man who I may never see again.

 

\--oOo--

 

Jack's homecoming barbecue is winding down. 

Lazy smoke curls up from the embers of the fire, and the handful of people who haven't drifted home are lounging on the lawn in front of it. 

Jack should be happier to be home, but twin moons of loss shadow his sun. 

A woman on Edora he almost grew to love, but chose to leave.

A woman on his team he grew to love more deeply with every passing day, and who will never know.

Restless feet pull him away from the crowd, towards the quiet slope behind his house.

 

A silhouette stands under his willow tree.

A slender silhouette, neck bowed gracefully as a drooping willow bough. Arms around the trunk. Soft blonde hair lifting away from her neck in the breeze.

 

"Sam?"

Her name escapes him before he can correct himself.

"Uh, Carter, you all right?"

 

She turns, pointing a tired smile to the  ground at his feet.

When she squares her shoulders and lifts her eyes, tears track down her cheeks like the cracks in the willow bark.

 

"Sorry, sir. I'm just a little tired."

Moments stretch between them. A hundred days of loneliness crowd into the air. Sam wants to move, but she's trapped in his brown gaze. All she can do is stare.

 

"Come here,"

His arms around her are soft and warm as sun on the branches. His chest as solid as the trunk. Fingers float over her hair like dancing, trailing leaves.

"I missed you, sir."

 

Jack closes his eyes. Her words wash over him like the water darkening the roots of his willow.

He folds his hand around her neck like he folded it around the graceful, curving branches of a willow a galaxy away. He weaves his fingers through her hair like the leaves he kissed each day.

"I missed you too," he whispers.

 

When the breeze slows, he pulls away.

 

She wipes her palms across her cheeks and he looks away, gauche. His fingers trace the lines of a spray of leaves, then another. He plucks them both.

 

"C'mon." He says, turning back to her. He reaches up and tucks one of the sprigs behind her ear, folding it gently into place between her soft, blonde hair. "Let's get you another beer."  


 

She turns and starts the climb back up the slope.

 

"Carter, were you the one watering my plants?" he calls up as he follows her away from his willow.

 

"Yeah," she shrugs without turning. "It was something I could do when I couldn't figure out how to reach you."

 

"I thought they were looking happy." 

He stops, and waits to see her slow turn and her sunrise smile.

 

When she continues up the slope, he presses his lips to the other sprig of leaves and tucks them into his shirt pocket.

Next to his heart.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> The first part - Jack - was written using the June 3 prompt #willow, for Twitter's #vss365.
> 
> But Sam wouldn't let me stop there today.
> 
> The ending is inspired by the beautiful, wistful endings of "Five Times they met in another life" by CoraClavia.  
> Thank you for being you xo


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